Looks like I have another of many hurtles to jump over down the railroad hobbie way of life so the next task to learn… I have 4x4 feet of bench work on the right end and over 4x4 feet on the left end of the benchwork. I would like to make 2 helixes for each
end to drop the track down to 12" or more to the hidden staging yard. Are there any step by step ho to’s for doing this or can I get some directions please? I included the plan for reference. The benchwork is 36" high which I’m quite happy with, and its framed with 1x4.
Lynn
[:)]
I’m not sure if pic will go big so please ckick the link
I left you a link over at 2g. Fred
Wickman, you don’t say what scale you’re working with, so I’ll assume HO. The math is pretty straightforward. Your area of 4 feet by 4 feet for each helix means your maximum radius would be 22 inches. That is a circumference of 138 inches, which is how far your trains will travel to drop 4 inches (required vertical clearance plus thickness of roadbed and track). Or a one inch drop in 34.5 inches forward. That’s about a 3 percent grade. Workable in most situations. A total drop of 12 inches would be 3 loops. Better have some good pulling engines to bring your trains out of there. The combination of grade and radius is going to be a killer, especially since they’ll be pulling the trains for 35 real feet. We built a large helix (minimum 36 inch radius) at our club layout if you’re looking for construction tips. Let me know.
Download the Helix Calculator on your desk top.
There is a chapter in How to Build Model Railroad Benchwork on building a helix.
(click on high lighted words for links)
So the helix went out the door and something even better came up here’s the bench track work you can see the red mark in the upper left corner where track begins its decent to below bench work it decends at a very nice grade of 2.7%
The entire staging yard is now 12" below the bench work this is the entire staging yard with reverse loop
This pic is the of both the upper and lower shown together
This worked so well that I think it may even be possible to do the same sort of thing running a rail down from the right lower corner stayoing above the yard coming all the way around to the lower left 4x4 section looping around it and joining back up with the yard
